Quality check on this synth

How to make that sound...
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I doubt I will ever use this sound in my music, but who knows. I just wanted to test my synthesizing skills.
I heard this cool, aggressive bass/timpani drum part in a song called "Single Blip" by VCMG. It was clearly synthesized and sounded easy enough to make. So I took a crack at it. Tell me what you think.

Start's about 1:47
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-g98-IHHIo

And here is what I got:
http://soundcloud.com/ntommusic/bassdrum-quality-check


I Used Synth1

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I would LOVE to know how to make this type of drums! could you explain how?

also..by synth1 do you mean sylenth1, maybe it was a typo?

Sounds like the type of drums Tujamo used in WHO

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JulianVeloso wrote:I would LOVE to know how to make this type of drums! could you explain how?

also..by synth1 do you mean sylenth1, maybe it was a typo?

Sounds like the type of drums Tujamo used in WHO
No, by Synth1 I mean Synth1 If you don't know what synth1 is, then you are missing out. It's simple in nature, but by far a very versatile free synth.

The key to this sound is like any standard super saw, just pitched down. You want detuned oscillators - really drive the detuning. That on top of Synth1's FM synthesis knob turned about 3/4 of the way help adds some of that slight metallic sound and it really puts the aggressive edge on the detuned oscillators.
It's a saw and a second saw wave on top of a sin sub oscillation - at the same octave as the first oscillator octave.
The second oscillation saw is what really adds the subtleties in creating that timpani-like sound. The oscillator is not synced with the first oscillator, but the "ring" is active (not entirely sure what the ring means but it helps give the sound the more percussive character rather than a super-saw lead like character.)
The second oscillator has also been pitched up one octave and detuned by 15 cents. The oscillator mix is 25% oscillator 1, 75% Oscillator 2.

ADSR is the next key part which is what gives it the "drum" transient. In the case of the song, it doesn't have a strong dynamic attack - probably because it was compressed. To emulate this, the attack of it is a little bit slow for a drum although it is still fast.
The decay is slow, there is no sustain (it's a drum, not a string instrument) and because it seemed to ring for a good amount of time - implying a deep bodied drum - the release is long.

The filter ont he drum is a low pass filter. I had to play around with these a lot and I don't think I ever got a 100% satisfying result with these, but I set the cutoff at 50%, 10% resonance, 40% Saturation.

I also used the built-in chorus unit on Synth1 to help add a 4-voice chorus. The chorus itself is a more subtle addition to the sound. It was just something I toyed around with to find a happy result. The timing on the chorus is a little ove rhalf way, the depth is about 75%, the rate is right under half way, with about 60% feedback and the levels on the chorus is about 30%.

I have unison enabled (to help make the sound big) with 8 additional voices (the max in Synth1) at positive 100% detune, 0% phasing, about 65% voice spread and no pitch changes.

As far as effects outside of Synth1, I used some EQ to cut off a lot of the lower frequencies because otherwise - due to how long the sound resonates it would clash with the kick drum. Also, it may just be my ears, but it sounds liek in the original song there is some very very slight fuzziness to the attack which makes me think they clipped it just a little or applied some very gentle distortion. In my song's case, I used GClip at about 65% clip.

Hope that helps. You are welcome to modify this to see if you can get a closer result, or I can share the Synth1 Patch with you, if you would like.

*any settings I didn't mention were left the same from the "initial" Synth1 patch.

OH! I forgot to mention turn off the delay effect and any LFOs

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ntom wrote:
JulianVeloso wrote:I would LOVE to know how to make this type of drums! could you explain how?

also..by synth1 do you mean sylenth1, maybe it was a typo?

Sounds like the type of drums Tujamo used in WHO
No, by Synth1 I mean Synth1 If you don't know what synth1 is, then you are missing out. It's simple in nature, but by far a very versatile free synth.

The key to this sound is like any standard super saw, just pitched down. You want detuned oscillators - really drive the detuning. That on top of Synth1's FM synthesis knob turned about 3/4 of the way help adds some of that slight metallic sound and it really puts the aggressive edge on the detuned oscillators.
It's a saw and a second saw wave on top of a sin sub oscillation - at the same octave as the first oscillator octave.
The second oscillation saw is what really adds the subtleties in creating that timpani-like sound. The oscillator is not synced with the first oscillator, but the "ring" is active (not entirely sure what the ring means but it helps give the sound the more percussive character rather than a super-saw lead like character.)
The second oscillator has also been pitched up one octave and detuned by 15 cents. The oscillator mix is 25% oscillator 1, 75% Oscillator 2.

ADSR is the next key part which is what gives it the "drum" transient. In the case of the song, it doesn't have a strong dynamic attack - probably because it was compressed. To emulate this, the attack of it is a little bit slow for a drum although it is still fast.
The decay is slow, there is no sustain (it's a drum, not a string instrument) and because it seemed to ring for a good amount of time - implying a deep bodied drum - the release is long.

The filter ont he drum is a low pass filter. I had to play around with these a lot and I don't think I ever got a 100% satisfying result with these, but I set the cutoff at 50%, 10% resonance, 40% Saturation.

I also used the built-in chorus unit on Synth1 to help add a 4-voice chorus. The chorus itself is a more subtle addition to the sound. It was just something I toyed around with to find a happy result. The timing on the chorus is a little ove rhalf way, the depth is about 75%, the rate is right under half way, with about 60% feedback and the levels on the chorus is about 30%.

I have unison enabled (to help make the sound big) with 8 additional voices (the max in Synth1) at positive 100% detune, 0% phasing, about 65% voice spread and no pitch changes.

As far as effects outside of Synth1, I used some EQ to cut off a lot of the lower frequencies because otherwise - due to how long the sound resonates it would clash with the kick drum. Also, it may just be my ears, but it sounds liek in the original song there is some very very slight fuzziness to the attack which makes me think they clipped it just a little or applied some very gentle distortion. In my song's case, I used GClip at about 65% clip.

Hope that helps. You are welcome to modify this to see if you can get a closer result, or I can share the Synth1 Patch with you, if you would like.

*any settings I didn't mention were left the same from the "initial" Synth1 patch.

OH! I forgot to mention turn off the delay effect and any LFOs
Thanks for pointing it out in such a detailed way! I will try to follow the instructions and modify it accordingly, if i fail i will come back for that preset. Thanks a lot

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No problem. Glad I could help you out.

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